Matthew Yglesias [1] gets it:
I’ve been feeling like I should say something about the failed terrorist attack this weekend in New York but can’t come up with much beyond the observation that I don’t quite get why this is prompting so much less freaking-out than the Christmas underpants bomber did. Both seem on a par to me — amateurish failures that seem to indicate that whichever people might be inclined to kill American civilians don’t have much in the way of capacity. Is the country learning? Maturing? Or is it just that airplane-related incidents have some special grasp on the public imagination?
As does Bill Roggio, Long War Journa [2]l, gets it:
A top Pakistani Taliban commander took credit for yesterday’s failed car bomb attack in New York City.
Qari Hussain Mehsud, the top bomb maker for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, said he takes “fully responsibility for the recent attack in the USA.” Qari Hussain made the claim on an audiotape accompanied by images that was released on a YouTube website that calls itself the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told ABC’s Jake Tapper that authorities had not found any evidence that the bomb scare in New York City was part of a larger plot.
“We have no evidence right now that this is anything other than a one off,” said Napolitano.
The federal government is treating the incident as a potential terrorist attack.
The fact that that the Taliban in Pakistan are claiming credit for the fizzled bombing in New York City is in of itself evidence of a link to international terrorism.
New York City domestic Groun Zero, from Mark Tran, Guardian [4](UK)
As investigators try to discover the identity and motives of those behind an “amateurish” but potentially lethal bomb found at Times Square [5], a grim fact is not in dispute: New York [6] exerts an irresistible attraction for those intent on inflicting harm on America.
Hat tip and more: Michelle [7].
And from PJ News [8]:
[New York] City remains a focus of anger for a variety of groups, says mayor Michael Bloomberg
The US senator for New York, Charles Schumer, standing in Times Square yesterday, described his city as the number one terrorist target in the world.
Schumer, who as a senator would have been briefed by the police and security forces, acknowledged he did not know who was responsible for Saturday evening’s bomb attempt in the square.
I will agree with Chuckles, b/k/a Charles Schumer, that New York City remains the primary domestic target for terrorist attack. Residents of Baghdad and Jerusalem may wish to disagree with the specifics of Chuckles characterization.